8. Alfred Hitchcock

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Easily one of the greatest directors of all time, Hitchcock managed to combine cleverness, technical innovation, artistry, and popularity in a way few other filmmakers have ever achieved. He was also an absolute master of self-promotion, and he became a household name by the '60s (with Psycho in 1960 and The Birds in '62, the same year Alfred Hitchcock Presents switched to an hour-long format). Always toying with audience expectations and breaking new ground, Hitchcock pioneered several film and narrative techniques, and virtually every post-Hitchcock thriller owes something to his legacy.